Thursday, October 23, 2008

BRAVO - a new study on Women's Reproductive health was recently launched by the San Francisco Public Health Department. Eligible participants receive a miniumum of $155.

The BRAVO study focuses on young women between the ages of 18 and 25 who have bacterial vaginosis (BV). Even though BV is NOT a sexually transmitted infection, it can lead to vaginitis (vaginal irritation, abnormal odor and abnormal discharge). If all this sounds like way too much information (TMI), just think about how much PREVENTION can begin once this study gets underway (and more funding for women's health period!)

Eligibility:18-25 years of age - Not pregnant - Currently sexually active - Screen positive for asymptomatic BV (not a transmitted infection).

The aim of the study is to learn more about and identify BETTER ways to keep young women healthy and reduce sexually transmitted infections.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

I am declaring this week inSpot week in the ISIS office. And you know that inSpot has to up to something big to get this title so early in the week! First, on Monday Plos Medicine, a peer reviewed open access journal, published an article on inSpot. Click here to read it! Now, inSpot is getting some heavy attention from major media players.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Definitely check out the site to hear and see the latest and greatest ways to practice safe sex and find answers to sexually related questions that you might not be able to ask any of your friends or family.

We showcase some of the winners of the Fresh Focus Sex Ed Video Contest as well as the winners of some of our latest contests and the messages are tight. There are photos from the 2008 Sex::Tech Conference held in San Francisco and the latest info on what ISIS is getting ready to launch in the coming months.

We hope you enjoy and visit often, tell your friends to log on as well.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The Sexperience starts off by warning visitors that "This site features very frank and occasionally explicit accounts of personal experiences of sex -- parental guidance is recommended." What follows are 6 episodes of The Sex Education Show, which talks about sex in the most frank and honest way I've seen in a long time. In the first episode a few young men openly acknowledged that most of the information they know about sex comes directly from porn. The kids talk about how friends share sexually explicit content via cell phones and myspace and how readily available this content is to them. The show then goes on to prove a poignant and valuable point. They show young men pictures of penises varying in size and asked the boys to pick out the average size penis for a British male. It turns out that the boys picked a penis that was 2 inches bigger than average. They had a similar test for breasts and without fail the kids picked the surgically enhance breasts as average. It was really amazing to watch the kids begin to understand that their views of average and how they saw their own bodies had been skewed by porn and advertising. And this was just episode 1! The Sex Education Show is awesome, in a time where porn is ubiquitous you have to make good information frank and maybe sometimes down right explicit to get the point across. Innuendo and vague references will not do.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

On the other side of the pond, the U.K. to be exact, an innovative look at a major social dysfunction is being tackled by a cohort of like-minded techies. Digital Inclusion a non-profit organization based in the U.K. has created a very interesting video on what the "digital divide" really means on a global scale.

Not surprising, the one in five of us, worldwide, who live "without" technology, i.e., Internet access, cell phones, GPS systems, ATM machines -are the poorest and least educated.

And the fact that technology is increasingly taking over public agencies that serve this population is even more disturbing, even though the agencies themselves are increasing productivity once they "find" the unwired population.

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Check out this project of the Queensland Government. They're using Facebook, Myspace and other internet sites, as well as bars and local pubs to advertise their new safe sex campaign,"Safe Sex. No Regrets." I think its pretty great that virtual spaces are starting to get similar attention as real spaces. I mean there really isn't that much difference, virtual or not people hang out and meet folks there.